Americans Fret about Unvetted Refugees; Congress Shrugs its Shoulders

ByJoe Guzzardi

Joe is a CAPS Senior Writing Fellow whose commentaries about California's social issues have run in newspapers throughout California and the country for nearly 30 years. Contact Joe at joeguzzardi@capsweb.org, or find him on Twitter @joeguzzardi19.

The writer's views are his own.

October 27, 2015

Calculating the average of various prominent national polls that included Fox News, CBS and Gallup, Real Clear Politics found that 78.2 percent of Americans disapprove of how Congress is handling America’s business, while only 12 percent approve. The results are consistent with previous polls taken over the last five years during which time the average never exceeded 20 percent, no surprise to those who follow Congress’ dismal performances, especially on population-related issues like immigration.

If Capitol Hill wants to better understand why America is so disappointed with its leaders, it should look no further than H.R. 3314. U.S. Rep. Brian Babin’s bill, the Resettlement Accountability Act of 2015, would prohibit refugees’ entry into the U.S. until the Department of Homeland Security approves them, and the Government Accountability Office reports on their welfare usage, specifically Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and Section Eight subsidized housing benefits.

Even though an overwhelming 74 percent of Americans want fewer Syrian refugees, and would like the refugees that may come to be fully vetted, Babin’s bill since being introduced has only 22 cosponsors. Accordingly, Govtrack.us, the website that follows pending legislation, gives H.R. 3314 a 6 percent chance of passing the House Homeland Security Committee and a near-impossible 1 percent chance of becoming law.

Time to turn up the heat. CAPS has two Action Alerts that should be sent today. Go here to tell Congress to block funding for Secretary of State John Kerry’s proposal to increase the refugee total from 70,000 to 85,000 next year and eventually to 100,000 in 2017.

And go here to tell President Obama to reject the United States Committee for Refugee and Immigration proposal to take in an additional 100,000 Syrians.

CAPS blog posts may be republished or reposted only in their entirety. Please credit CAPS as www.capsweb.org. CAPS assumes no responsibility for where blog posts might be republished or reposted. Views expressed in CAPS blog posts do not necessarily reflect the official position of CAPS.

Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit membership organization that relies solely on donations. CAPS works to formulate and advance policies and programs designed to stabilize the population of California, the U.S. and the world at levels which will preserve the environment and a good quality of life for all.